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Purdue Claims World Record Goldberg Machine

Posted by samzenpus on from the keeping-it-complex dept.

With 244 steps The Time Machine, built by by members of the Purdue Society of Professional Engineers and Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, took first place and broke a world record at the 24th Annual National Rube Goldberg Machine Contest. From the article: "It starts with the Big Bang, re-creates the extinction of the dinosaurs, holds a jousting competition, flips over an album, and simulates World War II, a shuttle launch, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and even the alleged apocalypse in 2012. In its precisely executed review of history, 'The Time Machine,' a Rube Goldberg contraption built by members of the Purdue Society of Professional Engineers and Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, incorporates a record-breaking 244 steps—all to water a single flower."

5 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. Not Pointless Enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I don't think that the steps to the end are useless enough to be a goldberg machine. Everything it does presents a sort of storyline, so it is more of a mechanical play. It's just too useful, or perhaps not abstract enough.

  2. Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers? by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I don't get it. I can understand having separate cultural student groups when the goal is to celebrate your culture, but is there any reason why Hispanics need their own separate Engineer society? Is there something different about Hispanic engineering or does this mean the Society of Professional Engineers excludes Hispanics? Can't we all just get along?

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    1. Re:Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers? by jtownatpunk.net · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Note the complete lack of Hispanics in the picture and lack of Hispanic names in the article. It's probably just a way to apply for minority grants and such.

  3. Let me guess...a film student made the video? by RapmasterT · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The video lost all perspective of what a Rube Goldberg machine is about. The edits, cuts, overly zoomed and segmented action completely invalidates the purpose of the exercise. Was it a seamless execution of 244 sequential steps...or was it 244 individual actions filmed and edited together...can't tell from the video can ya. There's at least one segment that had a clear failure (the ice age downhill slalom jammed).

    All in all, it was (probably) a great engineering effort that was ruined by someone trying to exercise clever video skills.

  4. Ugly by O('_')O_Bush · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The amount of electrical devices (drills, actuators, etc) that are merely switched on and the seeming lack of creativity with the items in the machine makes it ugly, imo. That and the large amounts of spray-paint.

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